Getting to Know the Bentley Library Search

Library Search is the Bentley Library's discovery service. You can use it to search almost everything the library has, including books and e-books, articles, and streaming media. 

Sign-in

Start by signing-in for full access to search results, create favorites lists, make requests, and access your library account.

Start Searching

The default Basic Search retrieves results that contain all of your search terms. These may match keywords in titles, author names, subjects, table of contents, and other descriptions. Switch to Advanced Search if you want to search in specific fields (e.g. title, author, subject) or to limit results by material type and publication date.

What Am I Searching?

• Search Everything: Searches the library catalog plus articles from many of the library's databases, e-books, streaming media, and other electronic resources that the library subscribes to. 
• Search Library Catalog: Searches the Bentley Library's collections - books, journals, and media owned by the library.
• Search Articles: Searches for articles from many of the library's databases. Not all databases can be searched here - you can find more articles, reports, data, and other materials using other search tools. View the list of databases not included in Library Search.
• Search Course Reserves: Searches for items placed on course reserve at the library.

For best results, always remember to sign in to your library account before searching!

Use Boolean Operators  - AND, OR, NOT

Boolean searching refers to searching using a combination of words and the three Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT. To use Boolean operators within search phrases, you must enter them in uppercase letters. Otherwise, the operators are removed and the search changes to a simple search that includes each word that appears in the phrase.

• AND will make your search smaller. If you are retrieving too many records on your topic, try adding another search term with the operator AND.

For example: "gen z" AND “social media” AND marketing

• OR will make your search bigger. If you are retrieving too few records on your topic, try adding another search term with the operator OR. 

For example: adolescents OR teenagers

• NOT will exclude a word from your search results. If you are retrieving too many records on an unrelated topic, try eliminating a word with the operator NOT.

For example: cloud NOT computer

Grouping Search Terms

Use parentheses ( ) to group search terms and to clarify the order of multiple Boolean operators. 

For example: (teen* OR adolescents) AND (smoking OR vaping)

Search for Exact Phrases

To search for two or more words in the exact order in which they are entered, enclose the phrase in quotation marks (" ").

For example: "first generation college student"

Truncation & Wildcards

• Truncation allows you to search the root form of a word with all its different endings by adding an asterisk (*) to the end of a word. 

For example: advertis* will search for advertise, advertisement, advertising, advertises

• Use a question mark (?) to perform a single character wildcard search.

For example: wom?n will search for woman, women

Use "Expand My Results" to locate additional resources

Library Search prioritizes items owned by Bentley Library and resources that are available to Bentley users in full-text, but it indexes much more content that is not immediately available. Selecting the Expand My Results box after you perform search will broaden your search to items beyond the library's collection which may be requested via Interlibrary Loan.

Additional Search Help Resources

Your library account can be accessed by signing into Primo. Sign in to your account with SSO authentication or use your full Bentley email address and network password.

By signing into your account, you can:

• Check due dates on borrowed materials
• View any library fines or fees associated with your account
• Save and View any favorite records or searches
• See full availability and access options for result items

Additional Resources

Requests for items via Interlibrary Loan and Scan on Demand should continue to be placed using your account on our ILL platform, Tipasa: